There’s a new class series happening at Phickle Headquarters! In addition to the summer kimchi class I have scheduled for COOK Philly next month, I’m starting a new kinda class: Wine & Brine. We’ll focus on one type of ferment, drink wine (and whatever beer, kombucha, water kefir or other fermented beverages I have on hand), eat fermented foods and do the normal class thing; eat samples, make jars of our own pickles and generally have fun while talking fermentation.

Dill head. No, not you! The thing in the jar.

I’ll be doing one of these each month, and there will only be space for 8 people. Besides the chilled out vibe with drinks, you’ll also have the opportunity to taste pickles that have been featured on the blog, some of my everyday ferments and possibly even some ferments that haven’t been posted just yet. Bonus – you get to see just how many jars it takes to be a fermentation blogger. (Spoiler alert: a large number of jars are required to be a fermentation blogger.)

Each class will feature a single ferment, as mentioned above. The ingredients will always be seasonal and local (thanks, Fair Food, for sourcing freshly picked pickling cukes for this class), and in this small group setting you’ll have time to ask all the questions you’d like to!

This first class will feature cucumber pickles, a topic I’ve NEVER covered in a class before. Cucumber pickles can be prone to a less than 100% success rate (unlike most other vegetable ferments) and my concern in larger classes where multiple topics were covered was that I wouldn’t have the time or attention to make sure that all of the bases needed for perfect sour dills were covered. It’s not that they’re crazy complicated, it’s just that unlike most other vegetables, there are some constraints and must-dos when fermenting them. They’re also, understandably, one of the most requested vegetables and my “Tricky Pickles” post on cucumber pickles is on of the most visited posts on Phickle. If you’re not so crazy about the dill, I’ll mine my garden for something you like better. Maybe some huacatay or shiso pickles? (A shiso ginger variety will be one of the varieties on hand for tasting this Wednesday).

Come brine with me. Wine is on the house.

So please join me this Wednesday to learn how to ferment a classic while enjoying good company and good ol’ phickled eats. You can find all of the specific details on my classes and events page. And be sure to check back each month for the next Wine & Brine.

PS – If I have any spare culture lying around (I’ll only have water kefir grains for the July class, but I should have at least kombucha SCOBYs and the occasional set of milk kefir grains at future classes) they’ll be available for free adoption to a good home at these classes as well.

Last week was Beer Week in Philadelphia and was therefore a week of many fermentation-related events for me! On Sunday I was part of a panel of fermentation artisans who spoke about the beauty and bouty of the wild, microscopic beasts that make our fermented foods so very tasty. Obviously I’m not an artisan, but my favorite Philly fermentery, Food & Ferments, is so they provided the goods and I provided the words to accompany them in the vegetable fermentation category.

The question at hand was one of Microbial Terroir. If you’re a fan of food microbiology, you’re probably aware of Rachel Dutton’s lab at Harvard where she and others, notably Ben Wolfe, do incredibly interesting work surrounding the microbial life in and on food. They write a lot about this question of “microbial terroir.” The simplified idea is that microbial life can be wildly different in different climates, even if those climates are very near to each other (think of your skin and your gut, for instance) and that the microbes in a given area have the potential to greatly impact the taste of fermented foods. So for instance, Philadelphia might have its own particular flavor, and when we use wild yeasts and bacteria to cultivate our food, we’ll have a uniquely Philly product because of that terroir. In the Dutton lab they’ve studied the microbes responsible for making certain foods very distinctive, with a focus on cheese. I highly recommend reading as many of their articles as you can. They make it their business to be readable and accessible to everyone, not just the scientific community, and it’s difficult to read anything they’ve written without saying, “Wow!” a lot. For my husband’s benefit I may start wearing a sign that says, “CURRENTLY READING BEN WOLFE. ANY GASPS SHOULD BE IGNORED.”

A plate full o’ Food & Ferments

At the Beer Week Microbial Terroir event I participated in, Nick Bokulich, a microbiologist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center moderated an impressive number of sessions from a group of very talented producers who all use some natural yeast or bacteria (e.g., not pre-harvested or grown in a lab somewhere) in their production. The event highlighted Philadelphia’s artisan fermented food and beverage producers and asked the question: is there something special in our microbes here?

Wild brews for tasting

Here are the folks who presented, each with his own answer to that question:

The room was packed, the talks were interesting, the drinks and food samples were copious and packed with the flavors of wild (but decidedly not lazy) fermentation. The answers to the question at hand were, shockingly, not conclusive. This may be a question for microbiologists to answer, but personally I found hearing it from the producers who depend on these microbes for their livelihoods very compelling!

Philly Homebrew Outlet is selling sourdough starter these days. They brought some to share.

The Brewers seemed the most drawn to the concept that there was extra special stuff that made their sour beers taste right. You can understand why. Wild beers, like the very famous Lambic, tend to be difficult or impossible to reproduce outside of their limited geographical reasons. That could be for a variety of reasons, but most brewers don’t take any chances. Brasserie Cantillion, the renowned Lambic brewery in Belgium, famously kept all of the roof tiles in the building when the roof was replaced in 1985. They weren’t going to risk throwing the baby out with the bath water, or the wild yeast out with the ceiling tiles, to be more precise.

The baker, aka the best bread baker in the universe, Alexandre Bois, had worked in bakeries that had actually tested the stability of wild microbes in their sourdoughs. What was discovered (and what is also mentioned in some studies I’ve seen) is that there isn’t generally a whole lot of diversity in the microbes present in global sourdough cultures.

Sourdough English Muffins from Philly Bread on the potluck table!

Zeke, cheemonger extraordinaire and manager of the Valley Shepherd Creamery at Reading Terminal Market, was even less convinced about the importance of wildness in our cheese. While there are a very few cheesemakers using wild cultures, most rely on specific cultures to produce specific results. There are a few rare examples of wild cheeses, even some local versions from Bobolink Dairy, but the many, many cheese cultures in the world tend to do specific things in cheese and most cheesemakers like to go for a particular end product over the mystery of what will come of wild versions.

Krauts at the potluck table.

I, as mentioned, talked veggies. Food and Ferments’ beet kvass and assorted pickles were wonderful examples of the goodness that happens with wild bacterial fermentation of vegetables. Since I’m not a commercial producer, I don’t have as much to worry about. My stuff is wild and crazy and if a batch doesn’t turn out as desired, I can start over without too much of a loss. For fermenty businesses, this is a more interesting dilemma. I personally love to believe that there is something special about the terroir of my South Philadelphia row home. That maybe it began with the Italian family who made their own wine in the basement 100 years ago and continues with me today.

What do you think? Are your microbes special? Does your kraut taste like no other? Does your sourdough rise more perfectly than it would at your neighbor’s house?

Floral and fiber-full, this was a whey ferment, so it’s also probiotic!

Fun times, y’all! This weekend I taught my first ever soda-making workshop. As is my wont, I may have crammed a bit too much in, and I definitely could’ve used a bit of logistical help moving from project to project and station to station, but even so, it was fun! While I love all the health benefits of fermented foods, there are times when it’s fun to just play with the bubbliness of it all and not obsess about which bacterial strains will best colonize your guts.

Sunny shiso

I’m a big fan of sodas that combine herbs and fruit because you never find those on grocery store shelves, and because I think herb/fruit combinations were made in heaven. My garden is getting ready to wind down, though I’m still hoping there’s time to get a fall crop in the ground (I’m really lagging this year), so I’m harvesting my herbs like crazy, in the hopes of getting my fill before it’s time to compost or dry them. My favorite herb this year, by far, was the huacatay I grew, from seed of course, to fill the huacatay void in my belly since returning from Peru. Runner up, though, would have to be the purple shiso. It’s so fragrant and has such a lovely hue, that just walking by it and rubbing my fingers through it during my morning watering sessions brought a bit of peace to my soul; a great way to start the day. I made lots of samples for my soda class, but my personal favorite was the shiso peach flavor. The floral notes of both ingredients played off each other perfectly, and I felt a little transported while drinking it. It’s definitely a new favorite, so I thought I’d share it here.

Garden and farmers’ market bounty, united in soda

This WILL become alcoholic the longer it sits, so if you are concerned with alcohol consumption, please make sure you consume this quickly. The early hours of fermentation are spent replicating yeast, if you’re using a yeasty starter, so no alcohol is produced. After that, the yeasts start consuming the sugars and you get lots o’ bubbles and a little bit of alcohol. So to limit alcohol, there are two things you can do. First, you could bottle it right way (skip the fermenting it in an open vat direction), stick it in the fridge the second your bottle is hard, and drink it within a few days after chilling. Option two, would be to ferment it for a few days in an open container, stirring regularly and vigorously, once you see bubbles, bottle, and as soon as it’s hard, stick it in the fridge and enjoy quickly. The open vat part keeps alcohol away, because alcohol requires anaerobic conditions (or you get, as one example, wine vinegar rather than wine), but you must stir in order to keep it aerobic.

PLEASE don’t ferment in glass. This is a very, very vigorous ferment and explosions of glass are a bad thing.

A pretty shiso leaf with a side of holy basil

‘SO PEACH SODA

Yields 2 liters. Easily Scalable.

I like my sodas to have a good amount of, shall we say, texture to them (it sounds nice than fiber) so I filter them once, bottle and add just a touch of water. For a more soda-y consistency, fill your bottle with 25%-50% filtered water.

You can always filter out the “texture” later, and to me, it adds quite a bit of goodness

Ingredients

3-4 pounds of fruit, after cores/pits/stems are removed or 4 cups of nothing-added fruit juice

1 cup sugar*

3/4 cup water, plus some for filling your bottles

The juice of one, large lemon or lime

1/2 cup packed herbs (optional)

Whole spices to taste (optional)

One of these starters (optional):

1/8 t yeast

1/2 cup whey

1 cup ginger bug liquid

skip the starter altogether for a drier soda that becomes alcoholic pretty quickly

Squeeze the juice from your lemon. Place herbs (if using) into the lemon juice.

Start making your syrup: heat water and sugar on the stove, stirring until sugar is dissolved, and then letting it come to a boil. Once it has boiled, remove it from heat and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the lemon juice and herbs over your fruit in a large bowl and toss to coat.

When the syrup has slightly cooled, pour it over your fruit and let the mixture sit for 20 minutes at least (I will sometimes let this sit overnight). (If using juice, just add the syrup to your juice and skip the above steps)

Once the mixture is relatively cool (room temp), pour the whole shebang into a blender or food processor. If using whole spices, remove those first.

Mix until very liquid, 3-4 minutes.

Once liquified, check the temperature with a very clean finger. If it feels warm, give it a few more minutes to cool.

Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer (If you like a more fiber-rich soda, you can ferment the whole mash and skip this step).

Pour liquid into your fermenting vessel, ensuring that there is enough room for your starter, and two inches of head space. Normally these quantities will fill your bottle to 3/4. Then top off with filtered water. If you want more of a true soda (less pulp) fill to half full.

At this point, you can go straight to bottling (skip ahead a step ) or allow it to ferment in an open container. Add your starter, cover tightly with a cloth to prevent flies and stir a few times a day to prevent surface mold and keep it aerobic. Once you see a good amount of bubbles/foam, bottle it and proceed to bottle as below. This process could take anywhere from 1 to 7 days, depending on which type of starter you use (ginger bug can be slow)

Seal your vessel and shake to distribute your starter (no need to add more starter if you’ve already fermented your beverage in an open vessel)

Let it sit for several hours or until your plastic bottle is rigid, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Enjoy! Once you crack your bottle, the fizz will start to dissipate, just like with store bought soda, however you can usually get another day or two of fizz by resealing your bottle.

When opening your soda bottle, take care to do it over a sink and use a towel. It helps to have a friend with a glass nearby to catch what comes spewing out! Depending on how many fruit solids you left in your soda, you may want to pour it into your glass through a strainer.

From now through the end of produce season(s), I’ll be hitting up the farmers markets in search of the best seasonal vegetables to ferment. I’ll share my successes and favorite flavoring combinations with you on Thursdays until the produce becomes sad and sparse. If you don’t get the reference, please watch this hilarious video clip that approximately 3,000 of my closest friends and family members have sent me. If you are unfamiliar with lactopickling, please refer to my post on submerging during fermentation before you start a makin’.

I scaled way, way back on my garden this year. Partially I was just too busy when it was time to plant seeds and partially I had some sense in my head when it was time to plant seeds. I knew that I planned to go visit my parents for a week of poolside work this summer. I thought that asking my dear and accommodating friends to spend an hour a night on my roof with a hose and a watering can might be a bit much two summers in a row. I did buy an irrigation system from Greensgrow Farm at the end of last year, but still, my friends are good to me, no need to take advantage.

When I talk about scaling back, I mean from small to really small. I might do some homesteading, but I’m still a city girl. So rather than 20-plus container tomato plants I had last year, I scaled WAY back to six. Instead of six purple tomatillo plants (huge monsters!) I’m growing three. I also have 5 hot pepper plants, some very varied rooty surprises for you and lots and lots of new-to-me and medicinal herbs (more on those another day). I also have the usual (and perennial) suspects going strong, although again chopped down to size for my limited available time. 4 kinds of basil, rosemary, mint, chives, summer savory, 3 kinds of thyme, oregano and parsley keep our meals tasty and nutrient filled in the summer months. So when I’m making pickles, I sometimes like to skip the spice drawer altogether and instead head straight for the roof or balcony.

When I got these smooth, small hakurei turnips from Blooming Glen Farm at the Headhouse Farmers Market a couple weeks ago, I wasn’t sure what I would use to flavor them. My first instinct was to grab some mustard seeds. You might have noticed that I use mustard seeds a lot in my pickling. That’s generally because I ferment a lot of brassicas and mustard seeds (also brassicas) seem to be a great complement to them. But I was a bit bored, and I had an herbstravaganza in my yard so I decided to snag a few sprigs of mint for this one.

There’s nothing like garden herb bounty. I planted that mint from a cutting, circa 2008, and I haven’t touched it since. Plant some herbs!

A few words on lactopickling with herbs: depending on the hardiness of the herb, it will likely breakdown more quickly than your vegetables. You have a few choices.

Deal with it. Your herbs will get a little slimy, but nothing bad will happen. Pack them in the bottom for maximum slime-avoidance. This might work better than the other options for crock fermentation.

Strain your pickles out of brine and add them back in to a lightly salty brine. You’ll lose the good bacteria in the brine, and flavor may be a little compromised.

Keep the herbs in for a limited time, which will mean keep them accessible using a linen tea bag or the like. You also need to be aware that every time you access an anaerobic ferment during fermentation, you are potentially putting a kink in the works. Allowing air in, changing temperature, introducing new yeast and bacteria, allowing something to float to the surface: these are all ways that you could “mess up” a ferment. Hasn’t been a huge problem for me but be aware that it could be, and for that reason I don’t usually use this method.

Add the herbs after fermentation, just before refrigeration. This method will take a bit longer, and you will still need to remove the herbs after a few days.

I have used and do use all of these methods, but my preference is for the last one. You still have to remove your herbs after a few days, but I find the flavor infuses really well this way, almost like a cold-brew iced tea, and you don’t have to risk introducing air during fermentation to get them out. This also allows flexibility for how you choose to keep your veggies submerged (crocks, pickl-its, swingtop jars with gaskets all can be used with this method). If you choose the first, you will have to put your pickled veggies into fresh liquid and that raises the question of salt level. If you put them in plain water, salt will leach from the veggies. If you put them in brine, you are going to be double-salting them. You also lose all the good, lactic acid bacteria present in the brine you get rid of. My recommendation is reflected in the recipe, but you can decide what works best for your fermenting method.

MINTY TURNIP PICKLES

Yields a quart of pickles, easily scalable

I’m aware that the choice of mint might seem odd, but I’m feeling a little too proud of myself for how unexpectedly fresh, unique and delicious these taste. In fact, I served these as samples at my last two classes at the wonderful Blooming Glen Farm and the amazing Fair Food Farmstand and I had several people comment on the particular deliciousness of those two, and a few even replicated them in the class. Give it a shot. They kind of rock.

If you’re new to lactopickling, please check out my Pickle FAQ before you get started!

Equipment

Quart jar

Something to use as a weight during fermentation (smaller jar, boiled rock, plastic bag full of brine, etc)

A cloth to cover your jar

A rubber band or string for attaching cloth to jar

Ingredients

~2 lbs of hakurei or other small turnips, washed but unpeeled

1 tablespoon of salt

~2 cups of filtered water

3, 3-inch sprigs of fresh, garden mint

Cheapo Jar Method in action – If you are new to lactic acid fermentation as a pickling method, be aware that submersion is a very key element! This is one way to achieve that.

Here’s a top-down view of what it looks like when you do some jar on jar action.

How-to

Chop your turnips as you see fit. Mine we small enough to quarter precisely. Leaving a centimeter or so of greens on top has a pleasing visual effect.

Put turnips into jar. It should be a little more than 3/4 full.

Mix a room temperature brine; hot brine will kill the lactic acid bacteria which are necessary for fermentation. I used 1 tablespoon of salt to 2 cups of water. You can adjust this to your taste preference.

Once salt is dissolved, pour brine over vegetables, and use your preferred method to submerge the vegetables, ensuring that there is about a 1/2 inch of liquid at the top.